Rooftop Romances
by EllyB19
Summary: One-shot: When Max and Fang finally have a minute to breath, a sweet gesture from his end sets off a spark for Max. Oh, not to mention that he's her best friend who remembered her birthday. Set after 'STWAOES' and before 'The Final Warning'.


Maximum Ride: Rooftop Romances

One Shot: After "Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports"

Max & Fang

Finally, the kiddies were asleep. It had been a long day for all of us; what, with flying for hours just for fun and then savaging for food. Once we had a house, I swore that we would go out and actually buy food. I didn't particularly like all of this dumpster-diving behind the Dunkin' Doughnuts drive-thru. I sighed and flipped out the lights in the little kids' room. Angel and Nudge were sleeping on a twin size bed big enough for both of them. Gazzy was across them in an identical twin bed, snoring loudly. Total was sleeping at his feet, his legs twitching, probably dreaming about chasing after Angel in a field of flowers. (Hey! That's not my crazy imagination for once. He actually told me that once. Honestly.)

I left the door open to our conjoining rooms and slipped inside the older kids' room, being quiet incase Iggy was asleep. As I figured, he wasn't nodding off—yet. Over his un-seeing eyes, his eyelids were fluttering shut every now and then. He was listening to an alternative station on Pandora on our laptop and the small speakers were quietly playing a haunting tune. I glanced at the little red numbers of the standard hotel alarm clock. It read 11:30.

I went over to his bed and sat down, my legs dangling off the side. "Hey, Ig?" I asked, "I think you should go to sleep. It's been a long day."

I bit of a smile appeared on his lips, turning one of the corners up on one side. "Well, I wouldn't call it a long day. I mean, we didn't fight any Erasers or Flyboys today, did we?" I smiled and brought one of his hands up to trace the smile on my lips. He nodded and took the laptop off his lap and moved it to a low bed-side table. He didn't bother turning it off, knowing that Fang or I would eventually log on during the course of one of our watches tonight. "Do you need me to take a shift tonight?" he asked groggily. He flicked off the overhead light, leaving only the balcony light and the lamp on.

I patted his head. "Nope, I think we got it for tonight. You just rest up your pwetty wittle head." After my mockery, he slapped my hand away. After a short laugh I said, "Goodnight Iggy," and kissed him on the forehead. He was out like a light, his deep breathing calming me down every second. Though this was a large bed, his feet still slightly hung over the edge.

I looked around at our hotel room. The two rooms were a perfect fit for all of us, and it aloud us not only two showers, but enough breathing room. It was a lot of money, and I knew we could only stay here for the weekend, but I wasn't upset. This weekend was special. Tomorrow was my _birthday_.

Okay, so I didn't really _have_ a birthday, but a long time ago I had made one up. And tomorrow, I would be fifteen.

A quiet but deliberate noise caught my attention. It was the soft _thud_ of two footsteps on the tiny balcony. I smiled. _Fang._

Yeah. So I had seen him only a short two hours since I had seen him last and it had made me smile. Don't judge me.

He cracked open the sliding glass door only a centimeter and whispered in a rough voice, "Bring yourself and the computer up to the roof and nobody gets hurt."

I suppressed a tiny giggle and did a quick sweep of both rooms. The coast was clear, and they were all asleep. I grabbed the Mac and quietly slipped out into the cold night. My eyes did a routine check around to see if anyone was watching and shook out my wings a bit. Since I didn't have a take-off strip, I braced myself and purposely fell off the balcony. We were on the 15th floor, so by the time I had almost hit the ground, by speed had picked up enough for me to fly. With a quick movement of my wings, I snapped them out to their full wingspan, caught the wind, and flew up to the roof.

There he was, sitting on a blanket that was spread out on the cold rooftop. A small stash of goodies he had undoubtedly stolen was in a mini pile in the middle. He patted the empty space next to him, and I obediently sat next to his warm body.

"So, what's this all about?" I asked, waving a hand over the length of our little party.

"This?" he asks, "This is nothing. Wait until next year when it's your sweet sixteen. _Then _we'll have a real party."

"Next year? Party? What are you talking about?" I ask, trying to sound innocence and oblivious.

He rolls his deep eyes. "C'mon Max. I know you too well to not know your _birthday_. Plus, you've been exceptionally giddy and nice to the flock and me the last couple of hours. And this hotel? Please."

Well, he had me there. "It's nice to know I have someone who cares so much about me." Right after I said it, I regretted it instantly. I bit my lip and waited for a jab from him about being like a character from a Soap-Opera.

He surprised me by laughing. "Don't doubt my abilities, Max. I can be deep when I want to be." His eyes glinted with the reflection of the lights of the tiny city around us.

All I could see was him. His jet-black hair was getting too long. I pushed a few strands back and tucked them behind his ears. When I was about to pull my hands away, he covered them with his own strong and calloused hands, cradling them to his long face. I smiled but said nothing. Forgetting the food, I scooted closer to him. There seemed to be some sort of a current between us, possibly from wires and chips, but no. I realized it was just _us_. No Erasers. No Flyboys. No flock. No Jeb or Anne or the Director. No Voice. It was simply _us_, here and now.

Our eyes held one another's gazes and something inside me shifted. (Ewwh. Get your mind out of the gutter!)

But seriously. Something in my chest, my lungs, my stomach, my (cough cough) _ovaries_, my blood. Something tingled. Something sparked. Something was changing.

"Fang?" I said in a voice tinnier than a whisper.

"Yes?" he breathed, his voice matching mine, if not quieter.

"I'm sorry."

The statement hung in the air for a while. Maximum Ride, apologizing? _Whoa_.

"For what?" he said, a little bit louder and a little bit _closer_.

"Everything. For being stubborn. For letting us… and the flock, split up. For _not kissing you in the cave_."

There. I had said it. This tiny moment a long time ago had lingered in my thoughts, invaded my dreams, and even brought me comfort and a tiny happiness. Up until the moment when I split, that is.

Only about an inch away from my face, he laughed. I raised an eyebrow. I had probably heard him laugh more these past few days than in our entire lives. Trust me, I loved the change, but sometimes it caught me off guard. Which was hard to do, mind you.

"Why are you _laughing_ at me?" I asked, a bit ticked off.

He shut up instantly and put both of his hands on either side of my cold face. I hadn't realized I had dropped my hands from his face. "I'm only laughing because you're being ridiculous. Of course, you're stubborn as _hell_, and it was a horrible call to break us up, but the cave? That was all me."

I shook my head. "But the problem was I w_anted_ to kiss you."

"Well," he said, his breath washing over me, "then why don't you do it now?"

The last thing I saw was his deep eyes before I blacked out.

Okay, so I didn't "black out". But if you could die from happiness and still stay on Earth at the same time, I was doing just that.

His lips were soft on mine at first, and then got hastier. After a minute of slow, easy kissing, he lowered me down, my back pressed against him and the blanket and roof. He hovered over me for a second, letting both of us catch a breath, but I grabbed the front of his tee-shirt and pulled him into me. We were moving as one being, each line and crease of one of our bodies pressed together, _hard_. He accidentally bit my lip, causing a massive amount of blood to form. I wouldn't have even noticed it if he hadn't brought it up.

"Oh! Oh god, I made you bleed. Um… I'm sorry! I'll just, uh…" he said scrambling off of me to find a solution to my 'wound'. He was flustered, and it was adorable.

"Fang," I said in a testing tone. He ignored me and was looking for a napkin or something. "Fang!" I shouted quietly. His head snapped up, and he probably thought I was really hurt. "I'm fine. Really, I promise." He was about to rip off a part of the shirt he was wearing, before I slapped his hand away. "That's your _favorite _shirt, Fang," I pointed out. "Don't ruin it for me."

He rolled his eyes and calmed down a bit. The blood flow had stopped, and in the cold air it seemed to be crusting on much quicker than I had remembered. He finally found a paper towel under some bags of chips. He got it wet and immediately started patting the blood off. Usually, I would have come up with something to say like, 'By the way you were acting you would think that World War III was happening'. But oh no, I didn't say something like that. The first thing to blurt out of my mouth was, "How romantic. You, patching me up and cleaning blood off of me. It's very honeymoon-ish, don't you think?"

Despite what a lame joke it was, he laughed. Finally, when he had felt like I was all fine, I pulled him in for another session in _Making-Out 101._

The music was quiet, but in the darkness and the cold it seemed like it was blaring. I made out a few words while we made out, and I could hear a pretty male voice singing.

"…_this night's a perfect shade of, Dark Blue Dark Blue. Have you ever been alone in a crowded room? When I'm here with you, I said the world could be burning down. Dark Blue, Dark Blue, have you ever been alone in a crowded room? Well I'm here with you, I said the world could be burning 'til there's nothing but dark blue…"_

Under his lips, I laughed. He pulled back and cocked an eyebrow. "The song that's playing… it's so… us."

Just then, the verse ended and the chorus picked up again. He chuckled deep in his throat, sending vibrations through my body. He was kissing my neck as the song was coming to a close.

"… _if you've ever been alone, you'll know_."

"Fang?" I asked.

He hovered close to my face again. "Yes?"

"What do you think he means by that? What will you know?"

He rolled off of me and to my side. He grabbed my freezing hand in his and looked into my eyes. We stared at each other for a long time without saying anything. When he spoke again, it was quiet, almost a breath. "I think he means you'll know when you've in love."

My eyes brimmed with happy tears. "Have you ever… been in love?" I asked. It surprised me when my voice stronger than I thought it was going to come out.

"Do you know what that song is called?" he asked suddenly.

Uh oh. He had completely deflected my question. I swallowed my thoughts and feelings and tears and shook my head. I could not believe I had read him wrong. I had thought I had known him so well…

"It's called Dark Blue. Do you want to know why it's my favorite song?"

"That's your favorite song?" I blurted out.

"Yes. Do you want to know why?"

_Why? Because it reminds you of the burgundy haired bimbo Lissa?_

Nope, I didn't really say that. But trust me, I wanted to.

"Why?"

"Because that's the color of your eyes."

I rolled my tired, wet, _brown_ eyes. "After all this time you don't know what color my eyes are? My eyes are _brown_ by the way."

"Not in the dark, they are."

He said it with full certainty. He was staring at me warmly, waiting for a response.

"Wow, I… didn't know you… looked at me like that."

"Max, I've loved you since I was penned up in a crate next to you when I was five."

The bluntness of his statement made me smile. "Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I guess I was afraid."

"Fang? Afraid? I thought I would never see the day." He nudged my side and I snickered. "Fang, what are we going to do about the flock? Will we tell them, keep it a secret from them? I'm not sure how they would take it…"

He nodded his head. "I was worried about that too. I think when the time comes and all of this 'saving the world' junk is over, we can tell them. But until then, I think we can be each other's little secrets." He kissed me on the forehead, and another thought sprung into my head.

"So where does this leave us?"

We both sit up and look at each other. Sighing, he says, "What do you suppose we do? I don't want to ignore this, Max."

I reach out and grab his large hands. "Me either."

He smirks. "So does this mean you'll go on another rooftop date with me?"

I batted my eyelashes mockingly. "It's a date, stud."

He helped me up and we packed up the stuff.

"One last thing." He put two fingers under my chin to raise my face to his. When we were about a centimeter away from each other's lips, he whispers, "Happy Birthday, Max."

After one last long kiss, we swooped down onto our balcony. We slipped into the room silently, but Iggy still heard us. He was up, doing god-knows-what.

"So how was the roof?" he asked casually as we put all of our untouched goodies away for tomorrow.

I snorted, unable to help myself. "It's strange how you know that, you know. It was official business, nothing too important." I caught Fang's grin from across the room, and it sent a tiny amount of butterflies off in my stomach again.

"Well, I'm hoping I'll never have to have 'official business' with Fang, in any lifetime. No offense or anything, but _yuck_."

In one quick movement, I was across the room and sitting across from Iggy on his bed. "Ig, if you say _one word_ or think _one thought_ about what you're thinking went on, so help me I will never let you touch another explosive again!" The hysteria in my voice was apparently comedic—both boys busted out in laughter.

After doubling over from my little 'joke', Iggy caught his breath and put his hands in the air as a surrendering motion. "Alright Max, whatever you say."

Fang and I got ready for bed and soon the lights were out. Iggy had crashed in his own bed as I curled up in mine. Fang was almost asleep on the La-Z-Boy next to me. Moving almost like a shadow, he leaned down next to my bed. "Goodnight Max," he whispered. He kissed me on the tip of my nose, and before I could pull him in for a proper kiss, he was back in the comfy chair, pulling a blanket up to his chin. I giggled quietly, and then I was dreaming.

Fang and Max. Max and Fang. Kissing. Leading. Together. The thought seemed so perfect and right, and I was giddy with happiness. No matter what happened from now on, I would have him at my side. Not only as a best friend anymore, but as a boyfriend, a lover, someone I could call my own.

All I could think before I drifted off into a peaceful sleep was this: Best birthday _ever_.

**Yay! Alright, so my task for this was to write a one-shot in under an hour with ****no editing afterwards!**** (Oh! The horror!) So, I know this is a bit repetitive, but I'm pretty proud of how well I (thought) I did. (: I hope you like it! Please R/R! :D**

**I love you all! **

**Love and Rockets,**

**Ellie. :3**

**P.S.—I will most likely be changing my user name (what was I thinking?) so to all of my (five) fans, I'll keep you updated on what I do! :D Thanks again! 3**


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